In a field of medicine, pathology, or the like, there has been proposed a system that digitizes an image of a cell, a tissue, an organ, or the like of a living body, that is obtained by an optical microscope, to examine the tissue or the like by a doctor or a pathologist or diagnose a patient based on the digitized image.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-37250 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1) discloses a method in which an image optically obtained by a microscope is digitized by a video camera with a CCD (charge coupled device), a digital signal is input to a control computer system, and the image is visualized on a monitor. A pathologist performs examination while watching the image displayed on the monitor (see, for example, paragraphs 0027 and 0028 and FIG. 5 of Patent Document 1).
Generally, as a magnification of a microscope is increased, an observation area thereof becomes smaller relative to an entire observation target. For example, a pathologist often scans and observes the entire observation target by a microscope and observes a part of the entire observation target at a particularly high magnification to examine the target. In such an examination, if there is a disorder in an area where the pathologist does not observe in the observation target, that is, a pathologist misses a disorder, a significant problem may arise later.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, it is desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program for avoiding a risk of missing in the observation target with a microscope by a user.
It is also desirable to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program that are useful for education in fields in which such an observation target is treated.